Lattal, K. A. (2004).
Steps and pips in the history of the cumulative recorder.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 82, 329-355.
From its inception in the 1930s until very recent times, the cumulative recorder
was the most widely used measurement instrument in the experimental analysis of behavior.
It was an essential instrument in the discovery and analysis of schedules of
reinforcement, providing the first real-time analysis of operant response rates
and patterns. This review traces the evolution of the cumulative recorder
from Skinner’s early modified kymographs through various models developed
by Skinner and his colleagues to its perfection in the 1950s, and then into the
1960s when it proliferated as different scientific instrument companies began
marketing their own models of the cumulative recorder. With the rise of
digital computers, the demise of the cumulative recorder as a scientific
instrument was inevitable; however, the value of the cumulative record as
a monitoring device to assess schedule control of behavior continues. The
cumulative recorder remains, along with the operant conditioning chamber, an
icon of Skinner’s approach to psychology.
Key words: cumulative record, cumulative recorder, kymograph, rate of
response, F. S. Keller, B. F. Skinner